This is the story of a space ship from Earth on a colonizing mission. It seems as if the passengers have arrived and have been woken from cold sleep and are ready to go down to the planet. Then the book switches into first person present tense point of view. We find out that the ship hasn't actually arrived but that there has been some sort of malfunction and a man who is called Teacher has been woken up mid flight. The ship is damaged and there are few others alive aboard but there are plenty of monsters trying to kill him. The story mostly involves Teacher trying to stay alive and figure out what is going on before something eats him.

The information dribbles in in a very vague way. This was the kind of writing that I really don't enjoy. It was so vague that you had to guess what was going on. For example it was full of complicated descriptions of corridors and cables that were ultimately unimportant because you never saw them again. You had to guess what was going on. There were dream sequences and surreal happenings. Nothing is ever actually explained. I guess I finally figured out basically what was going on but I like my stories more straight forward.

My first try at this author. I might crack open another but if the writing style is the same, I won't be reading it. ( )

One of those books that is not that easy for me to understand. And it was hard to keep up with all the different creatures the author invented for the story. But it was interesting and I liked it. ( )

"Hull Zero Three" is deceptive in its appearance: it _is_, after all, a space-SF novel by Greg Bear about bad craziness on a generation ship, right? Well, yes and no. Taken on those grounds alone, it's a muddled misstep. A broader perspective brings out the real nature of this book: it's far more in keeping with "Ubik" than with "Alien."

In keeping with PK Dick, "Hull Zero Three" is a ramble to answer some basic questions: "who am I?", "what am I?", and most critically "what's real and what's delusion?" The writing seems fast and loose in places where hard-SF would demand some clarity and detail, but appropriate for peering through-the-looking-glass at what lies beyond.

I'd rate this at 3.5 stars, but bump it up to 4 since Bear does succeed in getting the reader to share in the p-o-v character's misgivings about just what to believe. Can he trust his senses, his memories? Dick would have answered "of course not" and the reader of this book is lead to agree. ( )

Opaque science fiction. I had a really hard time making sense of it from beginning to end. ( )

Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both. Greg Bear has recently done this best with Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children, but I'd like to add Hull Zero Three to my list of great SF with hard science behind it.

With the questions that Greg Bear raises about our technical prowess as a species, our capacity for both great love and great destruction, and the relationships we share with one another, Hull Zero Three reminds me of Robert Silverberg's The Man in the Maze. Audiences might enjoy The Man in the Maze more for the social commentary and the deadly, technological wizardary of the Maze, but at their heart, both novels deal with the paranoia that one species feels when dealing with an alien other.

Hull Zero Three starts in confusion, of an interrrupted Dreamtime of a multi-generational, 500-light-year journey from our Solar Systems's OORT cloud to a distant planet. Our protagonist (later named Sanjay) comes to realize the history of his Ship, the people and creatures aboard it, and its deadly purpose and technology. For the confusion of the beginning, the growth and journey of the characters, and the climax where all is revealed about Destination Guidance, Ship Control, Mother, and the damage/confusion/growth/maturity of the Ship, we see in it's entirety the potential of the human race: are we fit to colonize other worlds, or would our colonization be no different than other conquests in human history? ( )